Published: October 18, 2012
New Ofsted report praises Highbridge's King Alfred School

Highbridge's King Alfred School has been praised in a new Ofsted report published this week.

The school has been rated overall as 'good' following an inspection earlier this month - an improvement on the previous report which rated it as 'satisfactory'.

In its report, Ofsted praises many positive findings at the school. It states that pupils’ achievement "has improved rapidly since the previous inspection".

And it goes on to praise GCSE results at the school, highlighting good results in English and mathematics. "This is because of good teaching. Pupils enjoy their
lessons where they experience an interesting variety of activities," says the report.

It also states that pupils are proud of their school. "They show great respect to one another and to adults. Their behaviour is exemplary, both in lessons and around the school, and they feel safe."

Ofsted also praises the King Alfred School sixth form, which it found "is improving rapidly and is now good - it now provides a wider range of courses which meet the needs of its students."

Ofsted also says the issues highlighted in the previous inspection report have been addressed successfully.

The inspectors also identified several areas that the school can improve - enhancing the overall quality of teaching to obtain greater consistency in good or outstanding classroom practice, and also ensuring that higher-ability pupils achieve their full potential by setting work which is sufficiently challenging.

To complete the report, the inspectors observed 42 lessons, of which 10 were jointly observed with a member of the school's leadership team. Inspectors also visited other learning activities and examined samples of pupils' work.

Pictured: Top, sixth form students at King Alfred School earlier this year with their A-Level results